Chat Room

Chatting with Samuel is more and more engaging these days. If you want to hear for yourself you can CLICK HERE and get a bit of Samuel discussing going to the post office with his mom... or maybe he was discussing the proper way to integrate paprika into mexican cuisine... (it's a lot of the same vocabulary at this point). Here are some shots of the conversant youngster:


(People in this family should stop taking pictures of the top of Dad's head, but anyway...)

Samuel is also becoming more ticklish.



In the end Samuel became a bit more contemplative and then started pulling out old Shakespearian insults: "I bite my thumb at you, Sir." (He's on a Romeo and Juliet kick these days. Kids!)

Bam bam

Hi all. Here's a quick post:

We wanted to say a quick hello and Samuel wanted to show off his new boxing moves. And yes, he always boxes from a seated position. It's not really clear why...

What is more clear is that we'll be on to the family trip to the Hayes Arboretum next time.

In the meantime here's a little lullaby from Samuel to hold you over.

Well...a lullaby or a yawn. Maybe a short lullaby.

Checking in at 4 months

In the middle of our little retrospective on this past summer we thought we'd mention that things are starting to settle in here in Cambridge. Karola is now in her teaching routine, Peter is now in his writing routine, and Samuel is in his Samuel routine. For instance, here he is, having just had a piano lesson from Hans Tutschku. As you can see Hans's unusual method of playing with your feet works well for Samuel.

And then here he is getting his first Harvard coffee with Hans and Hillary. As you can see he has the manners to set his paper hat down while we're at the table.


Well, Samuel had his check in with the pediatrician today. Nothing says, "Congrats on 4 months!" like a couple of shots in your thigh, huh? Anyway, his specs came back as 66cm (26 inches) and 6.5 kg (14.3 lbs). Or, translated into grown-human terms: About as tall as a tennis racquet and quite a bit fatter than one.

Flashback: August 1-5

So following the party in Louisville at the end of July we journeyed back to P's other hometown, Mt.Vernon, OH to meet Samuel's cousins Kaela (age 9) and Celina (age 12)


Uncle Chris and of course Great-Grandpa Bert

As you can see Samuel had a good time!

We had lots of food and parties to welcome Karola to the family and Samuel to the world. Grandma Betsy baked cakes which went over big.


In fact in the end there was quite a lot of great food, which ultimately generated quite a few dirty dishes...bravely enter Grandpa Ed, stage right.

As you can imagine, at the end of all that partying Samuel was ready for a good nap.
[Photo credits to Uncle Tom Hayes for the good ones]


Samuel's Travel Log Update
Louisville, KY -> Mt. Vernon, OH (260 miles • 419 kms)
August 1st Totals: (50 days) 1295 miles • 2089 kms

Back in Boston

Hello All,
We had a nice long flight home (via Milano, IT). Samuel wasn't totally crazy about sitting in a plane seat all day, but he did quite well. He did find the views of the Alps quite scenic, however.


And we had a nice landing back in Boston. Samuel was very popular with everyone, including the Italian pilot.


So, now happily back at home, K&P are trying to get things in order (not pictured below). Samuel, meanwhile is happy to be not on a plane so that he can properly explore his toys (ahem..pictured below).

Mirror, mirror, in my basinette...

Thanks for sticking with us during our spotty blogging. We'll be back with another summer retrospective very soon.

Flashback: July 20-31

During today's trip to Nürnberg it was noted that Samuel is logging an awful lot of travel at a very young age. The question we are currently investigating (in dramatically spaced installments) is: How many miles/kms does Samuel have per day of life? This is, you might be saying, a rerun-ploy as lame as any flashback clip-episode of the Simpsons, but there you have it. As Gian Carol Menotti once wrote: "To this we've come."


Shortly after his one month birthday, Samuel (not Menotti), was still a little guy. But we all loaded up in his uncle Tom's civic and drove to Cleveland for the Young Composers Program where we were teaching teenagers about composing.

With all of the craziness that goes with a week-long camp for teenagers, we all felt relieved that Grandma Betsy came up to help take care of the hungry little beast. The program was quite a success. Quotes from our survey included stuff like "the most fun and exciting week out of the year" and "I did not feel like a sheep like I did at Interlochen." Certainly the most popular part of camp was Grandma Betsy's Snack Hour (TM), where students didn't notice they were being treated like sheep...or they just didn't care.

Boston, MA -> Cleveland, OH (665 miles • 1073 kms)
July 21st Totals: 39 days of life. 665 miles, 17 m/day • 1073 kms, 27 km/tag


After finishing that extravaganza, we piled into the car for another road trip. This time to Louisville, Kentucky, where Peter showed Karola and Sam the house where he grew up. They also took a dip in the pool where he learned to swim, Lakeside:

But the real fun was in seeing our old family friends the Moores, who threw us a great party on July 30th. Many thanks to Beverly, Gerald, Kevin, Jocelyn & Colin for taking such good care of us! And thanks also to all the friends who turned up. If people from that party have photos they can email us, that'd be great!

Cleveland, OH -> Lousiville, KY (370 miles • 596 kms)
July 29th Totals; 47 days of life. 1035 miles, 22m/day • 1669 kms, 36 km/tag

Journeying tomorrow

For what seems like the 97th time, we are taking off on a trip. Tomorrow for Nürnberg for the first orchestra rehearsals of Dunkelrot. You can find some links about the opera at Karola's new web site... [ahem]... NEW Web Site: karolaobermueller.net. Anyway, self-promotion aside, we will be leaving Darmstadt where we have lived, worked, eaten, slept, and peed all over (you can attribute whichever of these to whomever as you see appropriate). Oma&Opa's house has been a very lovely residence, full of good food and many many cakes to coincide with afternoon coffee.

Today we a very nice afternoon with three of Samuel's tanten (Aunts), an onkel and two cousins.

From left to right: Cousin Jakob, Tante Marion, Tante Sabine, Oma Barbara • Opa Volkfried, Cousine Pauline & Tante Margrid.

And of course, Onkle Hartmut:


Here is a close up of that cake: Baumkuchen (Tree Cake) which is tall, hollow and has rings in the cake, like a tree. Unlike a tree's rings, however, these rings do not tell you how many years old the cake is.



If that's not enough (and it probably is), here is a somewhat bizarre 360° view of the garden at Sachsenstraße 18, where such cakes are to be had:

[and you may have to stretch out your browser to the whole thing. Oh well.]

OK, Time for bed! See you soon, hopefully.